15 September 2017THE COST of Operation Pallial — the police investigation into historic allegations of child abuse in North Wales — has risen to £4.3 million.

The figure, obtained by Rebecca under a Freedom of Information request, was the total at the end of March this year.

A further £1.2 million has been earmarked for this financial year.

The inquiry, carried out by the National Crime Agency on behalf of North Wales Police, is largely underwritten by the government.

The Home Office has paid 85 per cent of the cost — leaving the North Wales force with a bill of £671,000.

An additional £278,000 has been spent by the National Crime Agency.

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SO FAR nine men have been convicted and eight have gone to prison as a result of Operation Pallial.

One was gaoled for life and the others for a total of 55 years and 9 months.

They are:

Gordon Anglesea

The retired North Wales Police superintendent is the most controversial figure in the child abuse scandal.

He was first accused a quarter of a century ago.

At the time the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.

Anglesea then successfully sued two national newspapers, the magazine Private Eye and HTV in 1994.

He received £375,000 in damages.

In November 2016 he was gaoled for 12 years after new witnesses came forward.

A jury unanimously found him guilty of four counts of indecent assaults on two boys in the 1980s.

GORDON ANGLESEA THE TRIAL of the former North Wales Police superintendent took place at Mold Crown Court last autumn. The jury of five woman and six men found him guilty of indecently assaulting two boys in the 1980s but cleared him of buggering one of them. He died at Rye Hill prison in Warwickshire in December 2016.Photo: Trinity Mirror

He died in prison after serving 42 days of his sentence.

John Ernest Allen

In 2014 John Allen, the former head of the private Bryn Alyn Community complex in Wrexham, was sentenced to life for sexually abusing 19 children in the 1970s and 1980s.

It was his second conviction — in 1995 he was gaoled for six years for abusing six residents of Bryn Alyn.

Allen is the most prolific child abuser in the North Wales scandal.

Roger Griffiths

The former head of Gatewen Hall, part of the Bryn Alyn Community, was gaoled for 9 months in April this year.

In June 2015 he was acquitted of two counts of historic indecent assault.

In 1999 he was gaoled for eight years for a serious sexual assault on a boy, an indecent assault on another boy and several counts of child cruelty.

Keith Alan Evans

The former care-worker at the Bryn Alyn Community was given an eight months suspended sentence in March 2016 for a physical assault on a resident in 1983.

He was cleared of physically assaulting six other boys.

Gary Cooke

A serial sex offender, Cooke was gaoled in October 2015 for 14 years on 15 counts of indecent and sexual assault.

The court heard five vulnerable young boys were lured to his home in Wrexham and plied with alcohol and other drugs before being abused by Cooke and others.

Cooke has used many aliases during his long career — he now calls himself Mark Grainger.

He has convictions for child abuse stretching back to the 1970s.

JOHN ALLEN CURRENTLY SERVING a life sentence handed down in 2014. In total, he abused 25 children in his care at the private Bryn Alyn Community. The complex of care homes around Wrexham was an immensely profitable business — local authorities in England and Wales paid him more than £30 million between 1974 and 1991 to look after problem children.

David Lightfoot

The former Wrexham publican, an associate of Gary Cooke, was sent to prison for 10 years on eight counts of indecent and sexual assault.

Roy Norry

An ex-local radio reporter, Norry was another of those involved in Cooke’s paedophile ring.

He was gaoled for 11 years on six counts of indecent and sexual assault.

Neil Phoenix

Gaoled for three and a half years on one count of sexually abusing a boy at Gary Cooke’s home.

Julian Huxley

The former Metropolitan Police officer was gaoled for four and a half years on two charges of indecent assault.

Huxley was working as a civilian at Wrexham Barracks at the time of the offences.

COMINGTHE MYSTERY OF ARFON JONES
THE POLICE COMMISSIONER for North Wales has declined to answer Rebecca questions about his role in the case of Gordon Anglesea. He has refused to ask the Home Office to strip the disgraced former superintendent of his fully-funded police pension. And he won’t explain why his damning testimony against Anglesea at last year’s trial never surfaced in the 1996-2000 North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal …

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CORRECTIONS

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The retired North Wales Police superintendent was gaoled for 12 years last Friday (November 4).

A spokesman for the National Crime Agency (NCA) told Rebecca this afternoon:

“Financial matters relating to Gordon Anglesea are currently being examined under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

Rebecca understands this is in connection with the £375,000 damages Anglesea received from his successful 1994 libel action against four media organisations.

HTV (now ITV Wales) and the Observer paid £107,5000 each while Private Eye and the Independent on Sunday handed over £80,000 apiece.

All accused him of abusing children.

During the libel action, Anglesea’s barrister Gareth Williams asked him if he had ever “sexually abused any small boy”.

Anglesea replied: “No, sir.”

HOMEOWNERS GORDON AND Sandra Anglesea outside Mold Crown Court during the former North Wales Police chief’s trial. The couple’s former home in Colwyn Bay’s Abbey Road was sold for £395,500 in July 2006 and a detached house purchased for £305,000 in the same month. Ten days ago — just after the jury found the retired superintendent guilty of historic child abuse offences — Sandra Anglesea became the property’s sole owner …Photo: Trinity Mirror

The NCA move is separate from the attempt by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to recover £150,000 in costs which will be heard in January.

However, inquiries by Rebecca suggest the NCA and the CPS may find it difficult to trace Anglesea’s assets.

He has no financial interest in the family home in Gwynant, Old Colwyn.

The property — bought for £305,000 in July 2006 — is mortgage-free.

Last month the detached house was transferred to his wife Sandra.

The transfer was recorded by the Land Registry in Swansea on October 28.

This was a week after a jury found Anglesea guilty of sexually abusing two boys in the 1980s.

The Land Registry records do not show who owned the house before October 28.

According to the Electoral Register, however, Gordon and Sandra Anglesea have occupied the property since 2006.

There is also speculation that all or part of Anglesea’s valuable police pension may be revoked.

North Wales Police said today this would be a matter for the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales (PCC), Arfon Jones.

We asked the PCC’s for a comment but there was no reply by the time this article went to press.

[The day after this piece was published, Arfon Jones told us:

“I am in discussion with the chief constable about Gordon Anglesea’s pension and legal advice is being sought.”]

Meanwhile, the Rotary Club of Rhos on Sea, where Anglesea has been president three times, said he’s no longer a member.

Club secretary John Roberts said Anglesea gave up his membership 18 months ago.

In 2010, Anglesea was in charge of the club’s “Youth Service”.

Anglesea has also given up his membership of freemasonry.

The United Grand Lodge of England said he’d surrendered his last membership in 2007.

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COMINGA FORCE FOR EVILHOW DID Gordon Anglesea get away with it for so long? The answer is he used the cloak of public office to conceal his crimes and counted on protection from North Wales Police. This article lays bare the conspiracy hatched at the highest levels of the force in the early 1990s to cover up its failure to investigate child abuse — and to protect Anglesea at all costs. In the process, the force helped Anglesea win a famous libel case and made a mockery of the £14 million North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal ……

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Rebecca editor Paddy French was the only journalist who attended every day of Gordon Anglesea’s six week trial. He’s unpaid but there have been expenses of more than £2,000. If you want to make a contribution, just click on the DONATE button.

CORRECTIONS

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If you have been mentioned in this article and disagree with it, please let us have your comments. Provided your response is not defamatory we’ll add it to the article.

IT’S ONE of the greatest gravy trains in Welsh history. Glas Cymru — the not-for-profit company which owns Welsh Water — claims its sole concern is the welfare of its customers. But it also takes good care of its directors — paying them mouth-watering sums of money …

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CORRECTIONS Please let us know if there are any mistakes in this article — they’ll be corrected as soon as possible.

RIGHT OF REPLY If you have been mentioned in this article and disagree with it, please let us have your comments. Provided your response is not defamatory we’ll add it to the article.